Emerald's Story
by Hashire Kazemeijin
Summary: OC NOTICE. Emerald Acid is a mixed breed youkai who isn't really on good terms with the people of the human village due to an incident many years ago. One day after dueling his best friend for fun as normal, he finds an unconscious girl near the scene as he is leaving. Helping the girl recover, events would unfold that would bring Emerald back into contact with society.
1. Sub-chapter 1

**_This first 'chapter' is for giving some life and details about the two OCs of the story. The next chapter will be where the prologue makes the setting, so if you don't care for details and such, feel free to skip ahead._**

**_Emerald Acid is a character that belongs to me, and Harusame Mizukishi is my friend's creation that I am using with his consent._**

**_All other characters, as well as the Touhou universe, belong to ZUN._**

**Name:** Emerald Acid

**Age:** Around 60-80. Young by youkai standards.

**Apparent age:** 18

**Species:** Human/Tengu/Insect mixed-breed. (Explained later)

**Abilities:** Wind/Air mastery, includes usage over electricity/lightning.

**Weapon Mastery:** _Bow_. Extreme accuracy due to superhuman vision granted by Tengu/Insect blood.

**Appearance:**

Dark green clothes with traces of gold lines and patterns. Extremely dark green hair, appearing black at a glance.

6'2'' with a slim/svelte (but not skinny-thin) build. Two insect antennae on his head and four dragonfly wings on his back. Wears a hat of almost the same shade of green as his hair, and a cloak-styled cape to hide his buggy parts

Typical "x" wingspan when spread, but folded parallel down his back when hiding them.

Doesn't need them to fly like everyone else in Gensokyo, but uses them anyways during flight/combat for style.

Carries a bow made from materials from the Forest of Magic for when he needs to fight.

**Combat style:**

Prefers mid to long range combat, but has a stealth spell and melee tricks for close quarters if needed.

Being made from magic-infused materials, the bow itself has magic enhancing properties.

Doesn't use normal arrows in his spells. Instead he shoots "wind arrows" and "shock arrows", made from their respective elements.

Wind Arrows have piercing properties and can multiply in-flight or be shot as a volley from the get-go.

Shock Arrows are stronger and have a minor splash damage area, but no piercing, no splitting mid flight, and can only be shot in smaller volleys.

He doesn't *need* the bow to shoot since he can conjure one in the same way as his wind arrows, but using the magic-infused bow makes his shots stronger.

Like the Tengu as a race, he can use the Wind itself as danmaku. Speed and Precision are his strengths in combat, adapting a hit-and-run "death of a thousand cuts" style.

However, he's only as fast as an average Tengu. Marisa, Remilia, Flandre, Aya, Hatate, and Byakuren can all outspeed and run circles around him.

**Residence:**

Edge of the Forest of Magic. He lives at the top of an unusually tall tree. Unlike the Three Light Fairies, he doesn't live *in* the tree, but actually has a large and stable house in the tree's canopy.

The house has three small stories, each one about 9' tall. From bottom to top: the entrance and study, his personal room and crafting area, and a guest room and storage area.

The study has his collection of books that he's collected over the years, as well as a small alchemy set-up for random magical experiments, as making Elixirs is a hobby of his. Accessed by a hatch in the floor that opens to a vine-covered tree trunk.

His room is pretty self explanatory, and the crafting area is where he makes and infuses his magic-material bows. This level of the house has a balcony outside for sightseeing that overlooks the Forest of Magic's canopy as well as all of Misty Lake in the distance, accessed by a door in the room.

Guest room is again self explanatory, but also holds many storage chests for his various trinkets collected through the years. Each of the floors are connected to the next in line via stairs.

**Relationships:**

_-Harusame Mizukishi-_

Emerald's best and childhood friend. A pure-blood Magician with an affinity for close-quarters combat and water and ice themed magic; a battlemage.

Masquerades as a human when in the Human Village, but is known to be a youkai and accepted by the village leader and Hieda family.

Prefers to use water magic infused gauntlets and greaves to attack in melee, but is capable in mid-range danmaku combat as well.

Generally cheerful and sarcastic, if not a bit of a smart-ass at times. Is constantly taking and receiving jabs at and from Emerald, but at the core they have an unbreakable bond.

The term "Vitriolic Best Friends" fits them perfectly.

He stands at 5' 9 1/2" with short, casually messy mid-blue hair. He wears a long sleeve sky-blue top with curving white lines twisting around it as decorative patterns, and leggings that match the colors and patterns.

When he deems it necessary to fight seriously, he pulls out a black hooded cloak and mask that he keeps contained in a spell card. By using the spell card, he ascends to a new form of pure magic energies that are contained within the figure outlined by the cloak. In this form his magic strength is increased, and as a result his attack patterns become more fierce.

_-Kyouko Kasodani-_

Emerald's love interest. Mutual? Who knows.

_-Wriggle Nightbug-_

Friend of Emerald after their first danmaku battle (he won), mainly due to Emerald's partial insect heritage and both having issues with being disdained by humans.

_-Sanae Kochiya-_

Friend and self proclaimed rival of Emerald, again after their first battle (was winning until she channeled her Goddess' powers). His wind elemental mastery is better than hers, but not as good as Aya.

As a wind priestess, this makes her want to challenge Emerald when she can in order to "out wind" him using her own power, for lack of a fancier term.

Emerald has also shown a keen interest in outer world tech, and has (somehow) obtained a working TV and net-capable computer from Nitori through Sanae, and learned the tech from Sanae herself.

_-Nitori Kawashiro-_

Small acquaintance, as she supplied his TV and computer.

_-Marisa Kirisame & Alice Margatroid-_

Small acquaintances and friendly with the former, as they are technically neighbors and have run into each other in the forest. Marisa taught a curious Emerald basic alchemy, which he then took to refining as a hobby.

He's still not as adept at it as Marisa is though; she explores it seriously and for combat, and he does it as a hobby and shares interesting results with her.

Has not fought Alice due to her peaceful personality, but has "fought" (re: been shot at) by Marisa because she was bored and wanted to fight. Has not beaten her yet.

_-Spinel & Lazuli-_

Emerald's deceased parents. Emerald is the offspring of a human mother, Spinel, and a tengu father, Lazuli. Detailed in the next documentary.

**Spell Cards:**

Disclaimer: At best, I'd place these two as stage four bosses, where one is a mid boss and the other the stage boss, and they alternate depending on the player's choice like the Tsukumo sisters do, as well as alternating a second time when on the extra stage. The extra stage ideas are there for if a situation would call for it, such as them getting a 'no holds barred' rematch from whoever beat them beforehand. I am not trying to sell them as stronger than above the Gensokyo average, and definitely am not trying to make any of them an incident hero.

_-Emerald-_

His standard bullet is a green arrow unless stated otherwise (I.E.: wind bullets), used in all his non-spells.

Breeze Sign: "Gust Fan"

Emerald makes a backhanded swing motion with either arm and sends out a fast moving wave of wind bullets in front of him. Your basic opening spell or quarter-circle forward projectile depending on the game.

Tactical Sign: "Cloaking Gale"

A quick gust of wind blows over Emerald as he vanishes into air particles. He then reappears at a random location at mid to close range and shoots at his opponent. He'll either shoot a few streams aimed at his target, or a larger handful of streams aimed vaguely in their general direction, within a 90 degree arc.

Spark Sign: "Blinding Flash"

Emerald snaps his fingers, creating an electrical spark in front of the opponent's face that blinds them temporarily before shooting danmaku at them. No icon at the bottom of the screen to give away his position, but bullets become visible partway down the screen (halfway on Normal), and he can still be hit by return fire. Wears off after a bit and then repeats.

Acid Sign: "Corrosive Clouds"

Emerald poses for a moment before summoning a green colored cloud on top of the opponent before shooting more bullets at them. The clouds slow movement and can cause a death if the target stays in the hitbox long enough, shown by a countdown over the opponent's sprite, based on difficulty. Cloud dissipates after awhile and the pattern repeats.

Storm Sign: "Hurricane Wave"

Emerald quickly spins once with one of his arms in a backhand motion that summons a whirlwind of wind bullets that spread out from him in a circular pattern with him as the center. The bullets speed up their rotation as they near the bottom of the screen. Bullet direction based on how he spun. 3 layers of bullets on Normal, 5 on Lunatic.

Storm Sign: "Thundering Tempest"

Wind bullets of varying size based on difficulty fly diagonally across the screen. Occasionally Emerald will pose and call down a bolt of lightning to strike the opponent after a brief delay. The lightning will displace any bullets it runs through, pushing them onto a different trajectory. On higher difficulty, the wind can change direction.

Wind Sign: "Piercing Arrow"

Emerald makes multiple backhand sweeps in similar fashion to "Gust Fan". However, this creates multiple waves and the waves are slower but more dense. As the waves near the opponents, Emerald charges up and takes a shot with a larger than normal wind arrow that cuts through the bullet curtain. The shot is aimed at the opponent and displaces bullets in the same fashion as the lightning bolts.

Wind Sign: "Piercing Volley" (Signature move, like Master Spark and Fantasy Seal, but without the precursor bullet curtain when not a boss pattern)

Emerald makes more backhand sweeps to form a thicker bullet curtain. He then charges a shot again, but this time fires either a volley of five arrows at once with the center aimed at the opponent, or shoots a quick volley of five arrows one at a time in a sweeping pattern across the length of the stage. All five arrows displace bullets. Harder difficulties have smaller arrows when shot but split into more arrows partway through their flight and displace.

Stealth Sign: "Aeroblades"

Emerald dissolves into air particles like his previous stealth spell, but instead of randomly reappearing and taking shots at the opponent, he appears close by and does a dashing slash at his target with his preferred CQC weapons: dual daggers made from air. Cuts very finely as it uses the same technique that his piercing wind arrows do. Three dashing slices before returning to the top of the screen and repeating.

Supercell: "Eye of the Storm"

A CQC oriented spell. Emerald moves to just above the center of the stage and spins like he did in "Thundering Tempest", but with a few seconds delay on the spin. He then unleashes a screen- wide whirlwind that rapidly circles the stage with Emerald at the center. The center however is very open and no bullets come inside. Instead Emerald moves about and tries to slash his opponent with his aeroblades in the relatively confined space.

The opponent is supposed to stay within the center of the pattern and dodge the slashes while returning fire. It *is* possible to stay out of melee range and shoot from within the storm, but the sheer volume and speed of the hurricane-patterned bullet wall makes this extremely difficult.

Shield Sign: "Wind Barrier"

Fighting game spell and "Focused" shot type. Emerald surrounds himself with a shield of extremely fast circling wind that damages opponents that touch it. Effectively stops melee attacks aimed at him, but still hurt normally by bullets. As a shot type, it damages enemies near him constantly.

Suppression Sign: "Iron Mist"

Fighting game spell. Emerald summons four small clouds at the four diagonals around his opponent that quickly close in on them, but don't track once spawned. If the opponent is caught when the clouds converge, they get their motions slowed drastically and jump height severely reduced, making them easy pickings for a few seconds.

Pressure Sign: "Neural Shock"

Fighting game spell. Emerald poses for a second before making a small delayed blast of air pressure centered on the opponent's head. It can't be blocked and if they get hit, the opponent gets knocked down. Emerald then automatically dashes to the target and picks them up onto his shoulder, and then dashes to the nearest stage wall, slamming the opponent into it doing rather good damage.

Sea and Sky: "Frozen Gust"

Extra stage boss and combo spell with Mizukishi. Emerald launches multiple waves of wind bullets like with "Gust Fan", but each bullet trails a light blue cloud behind it. Passing through the clouds slows the opponent's movement. Pattern gets thicker and faster as Emerald sustains damage. Mizukishi shoots no bullets during the spell.

Sea and Sky: "Maelstrom"

Extra stage boss and combo spell with Mizukishi. Mizukishi forms a large water bullet randomly on the middle to lower half of the screen. Emerald then calls down a large lightning bolt to strike the bullet. This causes a localized maelstrom at the bolt's impact point, shooting out wind and water bullets in a circling hurricane pattern. The maelstrom persists for a bit and constantly shoots its bullets. Multiple maelstroms can be active at once.

Emerald and Mizukishi both shoot slow, aimed wind and water bullets respectively in between maelstrom strikes.

Sea and Sky: "Cryo Shot"

Extra stage boss and combo spell with Mizukishi. Emerald shoots a large arrow off the top of the screen into the sky. A moment later, a large icy laser comes down with a small warning, taking up 1/3 of the screen and centered wherever the opponent was when the warning came and persists for a few seconds. The beam shoots bullets from both the sides and from the point of impact as it lasts.

Once the beam finishes, it leaves a large ice cloud around the point of impact that lasts a considerable time and slows movement. Emerald will then shoot waves of bullets before charging up another Cryo Shot and repeating.

"Emerald Windstorm"

Emerald's ultimate spell. He only uses it when Mizukishi is injured and leaves the stage after "Cryo Shot" is beaten. It combines many of his older spells and amps them up. The background changes to dark while tiny rain bullets constantly fall straight down across the stage. Wind bullets come in diagonally from the sides and Emerald can change their direction at will.

Emerald himself moves about, and each time he stops he shoots one of three patterns: either multiple "Gust Fan" waves with their original fast bullet speed, a volley of three arrows shot rapidly one at a time that split partway, but do not displace bullets, or he calls down two lightning bolts aimed at the opponent in quick succession with their usual delay and will displace bullets in their path before breaking up into bullets themselves.

On Lunatic, wind bullets come in from both diagonals. Not a Last Spell, but could still be considered a signature ultimate spell like "Fantasy Nature" and "Sungrazer".

_-Mizukishi-_

Standard bullets are small throwing knives unless started otherwise (I.E.: water bullets). Used for non-spells. Different in appearance from Sakuya's knives.

Skill Sign: "Icy Embrace"

Mizukishi makes a punching motion and a large-ish hand made of light blue ice bullets flies out towards the opponent. The hand trails water bullets behind it, and the hand retracts to Mizukishi after reaching the bottom of the screen. He then shoots basic bullets in a spread before repeating. Hand size and speed varies on difficulty.

Ice Sign: "Punchyfist" (Signature move)

Mizukishi dashes close to the target before charging up a close-quarters punch. When thrown, the punch "explodes" at the point of impact into a cluster of slow moving ice bullets with a tight, shotgun-esque spread. This repeats once more before retreating to mid range. He then punches thrice in quick succession, shooting a wave of water bullets at the opponent with each one, with varying speed.

Surge Sign: "Crashing Waves"

Mizukishi poses in a low crouch as he summons a huge, screen-wide and half-screen tall curtain of water bullets that fall straight down. Mizukishi then punches upward while moving to the top of the screen, clearing a column of bullets. He then charges towards the opponent for a punch similar to the CQC punch in "Punchyfist", but with water bullets instead of ice. He trails a column of water bullets behind him as he travels towards the opponent. Spell repeats after.

Disperse Sign: "Freezing Vapors"

Mizukishi dissipates into a cloud of mist and homes in on the opponent, chasing them. The mist has a hitbox similar in size to the hitbox of a large bullet in the main games, and leaves a small trail of mist behind it that dissolves over time. Both the trail and the main mist "body" periodically radiate slow moving ice bullets to take up screen space.

Sea Sign: "High Tides"

Mizukishi raises a hand into the air and summons a screen-wide wall of water bullets similar to "Crashing Waves", but from the bottom of the screen, cutting off use of any space past the curtain for the duration of the spell. He then begins attacking the opponent with dashing punches and flying kicks that radiate a small handful of bullets at the impact point. The water at the bottom of the screen rises as Mizukishi takes damage, up to occupying the entire lower half of the screen.

Water Sign: "Downpour"

Mizukishi charges up and shoots multiple streams of water off the screen and into the sky. Rain bullets then begin to fall down the screen for the duration of the spell. Mizukishi attacks during the rain in a simple fashion: various standard bullet shots, ranged water wave punches, and dashing kicks.

Shot Sign: "Hidden Arrowfish"

Mizukishi charges in a similar fashion to "Downpour", but he shoots the water streams down and off the bottom of the screen. He then uses his favored melee attacks to attack the opponent as he has been doing, but adds in a few screen-width dashes that trail water bullets, and chases the opponent more persistently when he's trying to punch them in the face. Throughout the spell, streams of fast moving water bullets will fly at the opponent from off the screen bottom after a small warning delay.

Sea and Sky: "Charged Rain"

Extra stage boss and combo spell with Emerald. A spell very similar to "Downpour", but the rain drops are more spread out due to having a larger hitbox, as they are electrocuted. Occasionally, lightning will arc and chain between drops, limiting the opponent's movement even more as Mizukishi attacks them.

Sea and Sky: "Favorable Winds"

Extra stage boss and combo spell with Emerald. Mizukishi summons up another wall of water to occupy the lower 1/4th of the screen before again attacking in ranged-to-melee patterns. Periodically, Emerald will charge up and summon a gust of wind (no bullets) that displaces the wall of water, causing it to either slant for a bit, form waves that cross the width of the screen, or even part the wall in the middle and throw the water high up onto the screen before the bullets fall back down to form up again.

Sea and Sky: "Blizzard's Whiteout"

Extra stage boss and combo spell with Emerald. Mizukishi and Emerald both stay at the top center of the screen as they summon a blizzard to attack. White snow bullets of varying size fly in diagonally at a fairly fast pace. The blizzard can change directions. Emerald and Mizukishi don't move from their spot, but occasionally Mizukishi will shoot a couple waves of ice bullets.

"Azure Frostbite"

Mizukishi's ultimate spell. He only uses it when Emerald is injured and leaves the stage after "Blizzard's Whiteout" is beaten. Mizukishi poses in a wide "x" stance briefly as four good sized icicles form at the player's diagonals and move as the player does. He then swings his arms in a cross slash motion as the icicles stop tracking the player and converge into a large "x" shaped crystal at the location. The crystal will then spin shortly before exploding and sending out multiple ice bullets on all sides. Mizukishi then moves while punching out clusters of slow moving water bullets from medium range before repeating the spell pattern. Not a Last Spell, but could still be considered a signature ultimate spell like "Fantasy Nature" and "Sungrazer".


	2. Prologue

_**This mini-chapter is to give a little background to Emerald and Mizukishi in a "how they got to where we are now" type of story.**_

**_Emerald Acid is a character that belongs to me, and Harusame Mizukishi is my friend's creation that I am using with his consent._**

**_All other characters, as well as the Touhou universe, belong to ZUN._**

Emerald was raised in the human village by his mother, Spinel. He was raised in a bit of secrecy as his mother dressed him with a hat to cover his antennae and a cape to help hide his wings that could sometimes be seen through his loose fitting top clothing.

He was also brought up as if he were a normal human, the only people knowing otherwise were himself, his mother, the village elder, and the Hieda family. The elder, knowing their circumstances, had no issues with allowing Emerald to live in the village as a human.

One day, he was out in an open field on his own when he encountered Harusame Mizukishi. Mizu approached Emerald and immediately identified him as a mixed-blood youkai as for all intents and purposes, Emerald is classified as a youkai due to being "upgraded" from a half- youkai due to the incident.

As Emerald attempted to hide it, Mizu told he had no ill intent and even revealed he was a youkai as well; a pure-blooded Magician. Being a youkai hiding as a human as well, Mizu was interested and wanted to reach out to Emerald for being in a similar situation.

The two talked for the remainder of the day and easily became friends that would remain as such even up to the current time in Gensokyo.

Shortly after his 16th birthday, his mother passed due to complications caused by her injury, leaving him alone aside from his friendship with Mizu. The village elder supported him by means of funds to live, but Emerald was mostly left to himself due to being reclusive from his upbringing.

Two years later, Emerald stopped aging visibly. It wouldn't get noticed anytime soon, but in the following decade or so, some people became suspicious. The majority of the conspirators eventually accepted that the trauma of his mother passing so early was having an effect on his body.

Another decade later, and both Emerald and Mizukishi would be exposed. Another incident was happening, which had drawn the attention of the next generation of the Hakurei Miko. The village again came under attack, but this time only by weak, small time, yet still man eating youkai.

This generation of Hakurei was a bit more gung-ho than her predecessor, and had raced off to find the source while not bothering to even check on the village, and at the time most of the fight-capable village defenders were out fortifying some defensive outposts outside of the village.

When the attack came, Emerald and Mizukishi would realize that, while weak, the attackers would overrun what few defenders were left, and upon request from the village elder, took to the front lines. The two easily cleaned up the attacking youkai, finishing off the last of them as the defenders returned.

By saving the village though, the two had been officially discovered as non-human. At first and for a couple months to follow things seemed normal, but eventually the human's natural paranoia of things not of their species began to whisper accusations at Emerald and Mizukishi of secretly orchestrating the youkai attack.

Eventually, the accusations grew venomous even towards his deceased mother for birthing a "creature" like Emerald. Unable to stand it anymore Emerald left the village and eventually came across the tree that he would build his house on.

Mizukishi had fallen off the radar at this point as a conspirator due to Magicians being much closer to humans than other youkai, but after seeing how the villagers turned on Emerald despite his actions to protect them, he left as well as to not deal with them, although he still occasionally visited the village for supplies and to see the elder.

Over the years, Emerald would develop his house into the multi-tiered dwelling that it currently is, and mastered the practice of using the Forest of Magic's naturally infused materials in weapons, and settled on a bow to play to his strengths such as his powerful eyesight, natural affinity for range and "thousand cuts" style.

A generation passed, and the powers of the Hakurei Miko would fall onto Reimu, bringing us to the present time. Emerald had met a handful of other people, mostly youkai, and had even made a few friends amongst them.


	3. Chapter 1

**_Emerald Acid is a character that belongs to me, and Harusame Mizukishi is my friend's creation that I am using with his consent._**

**_All other characters, as well as the Touhou universe, belong to ZUN._**

_**Chapter 1**_

Gensokyo. A place of fantasy and beauty. On a clear spring day a scenic, open field behind the Human Village, separated from the backyard of the Myouren Temple by a mid height cliff face, is a pristine location to escape from both society and wildlife and just relax; a lovely vista to just sleep on the grass, watch the sunset, or simply relax.

...Or at least it would be, if it weren't for the fact that two youkai were fighting hard in the field. Danmaku and elemental energies flew this way and that, colliding against surfaces with audible impacts yet leaving no damage on the environment. Through the crossfire, the silhouettes of the two combatants were occasionally visible before darting off into another attack pattern.

-Glackglackglackglackglackglack-

"Just spamming arrows? That's so... basic!"

-Bip-glaow-

"Just some covering fire. I've got bigger shots too."

-Whooooosh-

A strong gust of wind suddenly surged through part of the field, seemingly out of place with the graceful and light breeze that characterized the location.

"Oh. Well this is new. Hiding away with invisibility? Isn't that a bit underhanded?"

-Whish-

A smaller gust blew through the area behind the visible combatant, revealing the formerly invisible fighter, who dashed towards the first. The victim of the back attack turned around just in time to see his opponent slash across his body, slicing a hole in his top garment.

-Pichuuuuun-

The struck fighter fell from the sky and impacted the ground on his back. His opponent made a quick flourish of his arms to dissipate his weapon before landing next to the loser of the duel, sitting down on the grass nearby so both could talk and relax.

"That win brings the score up to an even sixteen wins for both of us, doesn't it?"

The voice belonged to Emerald Acid, the victor of the duel. A half-youkai; complications before his birth resulted in a mixed heritage of three races. He was a tall figure with dark green hair, and a green tunic with gold lined patterns with matching pants. His natural ability was the manipulation of wind, and also lightning as a result of clever usage of his wind powers. The blade-like weapon he had struck his opponent down with was made from manipulated wind around his arm, held in the shape of a blade, and sharpened to cut.

"Yeah. We're even now. But that invisibility spell card is cheap."

The other voice came from Emerald's best friend, Harusame Mizukishi, who had sat up from his flat position. Although his words were somewhat barbed, he said them with a smile on his face and Emerald knew he meant nothing by them. Mizu was a bit shorter than Emerald, and was a full blooded youkai from birth; a magician. He had an affinity for water and ice magic, as well as close quarters combat, making him more of a battle mage that uses his magic to support and enhance his melee attacks as opposed to a typical spellcaster magician.

"Hey, no complaints. I based it off a cheeky spell card of your own." Emerald jabbed back.

"Yeah but it's ok when it's _my_ spell card." Mizu grinned at his statement. Emerald snickered.

"Still no shame in hypocrisy, eh?"

"Not a bit."

With that statement, Mizu stretched out and flopped back onto his back.  
Enjoying the view of the waning afternoon sky. Emerald couldn't help but smile at his friend's blunt honesty, and he looked to the sky himself and closed his eyes to enjoy the gentle spring breeze.

Both friends kept relaxing in the field for a time, winding down from their latest duel. As the sun began to set and the evening sky threatened to lower the outside temperature, both of them stood up to make their leave for the evening. They fist bumped, said their goodbyes, and each took off towards their own dwellings. As he got ready to fly off however, Emerald had glanced at the cliff face before the sunlight had fully quit, and caught a glance of what appeared to be a person among the rocks at the base of the cliff. Curious, Emerald went over and indeed did find a person laying there. What was more unexpected was that the found girl was unconscious. The girl obviously wasn't human; she had brown haired animal-esque ears and a matching tail on her backside, and a pretty shade of green for her natural and short head hair. She had a simple outfit that consisted of a long, pale pink shirt with teal flower-shaped buttons and a white dress below it with black trim. Youkai or not, Emerald was worried about leaving a girl defenselessly out in an open field overnight. He lifted her up princess style, and then paused to consider what to do with her. It was very unlikely that she had a home in the nearby Human Village, and he really didn't want to have to interact with humans if he could help it, as he had a troubled experience with the humans of the village in the past. (This also led him to be unaware of the goals of the Myouren Temple, and as such he didn't consider it as a place to take her). And while it would be different if he had an idea of where to take her, he didn't fancy flying around all night looking for a home that may or may not exist, so he decided to take her back to his own home until she recovered. The decision made, Emerald lept into the air and began to fly home.

Emerald lived at the edge of the Forest of Magic. His house was at the top of an unusually large tree that had a commanding view of the forest's canopy, as well as Misty Lake in the distance. The house had three separate small stories, with a guest room at the top floor that the mystery girl would recover in.

After flying for about ten minutes while avoiding or repelling the occasional fairy (as he could not fight with his hands full, but could inhale and blow air to shoo them away if they gave chase), he made it to the base of the tree he called home. Entering the house through a hatch on the bottom floor, he closed the entrance behind him and took the green haired girl to the top floor and placed her in one of the guest beds. Upon closer inspection in better lighting, she appeared unharmed aside from a small bump on the upper right side of her forehead. Emerald fetched a bit of bandage to wrap around her forehead, and then covered her with the bedsheets. On top of the bed's side shelf (each bed had one for personal storage for the guests), he left a cup of water and a note for the girl.

"Be at ease, you are in no danger here. When you wake, please come down the stairs to find me on either of the lower floors. I will be checking in periodically in the case that you do not feel well enough to walk."

With that, the room's lights were shut off, and she was left to sleep and recover. Emerald's house had an odd lighting source. Through a kappa acquaintance of a friend, he had acquired an odd, box-like device that he could use his lightning channeling abilities on to provide a source of energy that he only barely understood. The energy that the box turned the lightning into would brighten a small orb with metal strings inside, which would light up the respective room that they were in, and could be darkened via a switch on the energy-box.

A few hours into the evening passed as Emerald found himself reading various texts in his study on the bottom floor of his house, when he heard the creaking of weight on wood. He looked up from his book to the stairs to see the green haired girl at the base of the stairs. She looked around with understandable caution as it was an unfamiliar location to her, but as she looked onto Emerald, she seemed to ease up a bit.

"Hello?" She voiced.

Emerald smiled at her and waved her over.

"No worries, I'm harmless. I just want to talk. Have a seat?" Emerald said as he gestured to the chair across from him.

The girl came over and took a seat, and looked around the room, taking in her surroundings.

"So." Emerald started. "I'm sure you wanna to know what exactly is going on. Simply put, I found you KO'd at the base of a cliff in a field that my friend and I were in earlier today. Night was falling when I found you, and I didn't want to leave someone out cold in the open at night."

He glanced to the side real quick to break eye contact. "Especially not a pretty girl." He said. Refocusing, he continued. "And since I didn't know where you came from or currently reside, I felt the best course of action was to bring you here to my home to get you recovering as swiftly as possible. Sorry for the unfamiliar scenery that you woke to."

"N-no! Don't be! I'm thankful that you took the time to help me, even after laying me down to recover." The girl said.

"Thank you for lending me a bed, by the way. I made it back up before coming down."

Emerald nodded at her before addressing her again. "Glad to see you're doing better..." He paused awkwardly and with a quizzical expression.

"Kyouko. Kasodani Kyouko." The girl said with a smile.

"Kasodani-san, then."

"Please, Kyouko is fine. It's much easier. And no '-san'." She was still smiling.

"Kyouko-chan it is then." He felt a little red in the face, as he wasn't used to not being formal with people aside from his childhood friend that was Mizu.

"My name is-"

"You're Emerald-san, right?" Kyouko cut him off.

Emerald looked surprised. He wasn't a social person, and he never expected someone he hadn't met before to know about him. The surprise must have been readable on his face, as Kyouko responded in kind.

"Ah, sorry. That must have seemed odd. I know your friend; Haru-san. Harusame Mizukishi." Kyouko explained.

"'Haru-san'? A nickname?" Emerald asked.

"Yeah. I have a habit of giving people nicknames. It feels less formal., even with the honorific. May I give you one too? If you're ok with that."

"I... don't see the harm with one."

With that, Kyouko pondered a proper nickname. After about a minute of thinking, she spoke up again.

"Well this is embarrassing." She admitted. "I can't seem to come up with anything that sounds good."

"In that case... why don't you just drop honorifics?" Emerald suggested.

"If you're ok with that, then it's fine for me!" She smiled.

"So. Where do you know my friend Mizu from?" Emerald inquired.

"During my daily routines. I live at the Myouren Temple as a priest-in-training. He's a somewhat frequent visitor and has permission to come and go freely since he's in Hijiri-sama's good graces as a peaceful and friendly youkai."

That made sense, Emerald thought. Mizu had always been far more social than him. He also kicked himself mentally for not considering the youkai priest as someone to take her to. (Although he still was unaware of Byakuren's goal.)

"So so what led you to become a Buddhist?" Emerald asked.

Kyouko answered. "After I came to Gensokyo after being forgotten in the old world, I kind of felt like I didn't know what do do with myself. I mean, my whole purpose in life was being true to my species' namesake, and then I lost that. As I was just aimlessly existing, Hijiri-sama found me and offered to hear me out. After telling her my problem, she offered to take me in as a priest. That way I had all the necessities for living, as well as a new direction in life to pursue as a Buddhist. She basically saved my life that day, and for that I'll be forever thankful."

"Granted," she continued. "I'll admit it's become a somewhat tedious process. I actually have a completely unrelated hobby that I enjoy in my spare time. But I'm still fully committed to being a priest."

"Unrelated hobby?"

"Singing. I'm half of a punk rock duo. It's actually kind of a stress relief from the training. My partner and I hold night concerts and just enjoy ourselves while singing for our fans. Mystia Lorelei, the night sparrow and owner of the roaming grilled lamprey food stall. Do you know her by chance?"

"I don't know her personally, but I know _of_ her. I have a friend who is a close friend of hers." Emerald replied.

"That's great! You should come to an event. They're really fun." Kyouko said excitedly.

"I, uhh... I'm not sure about that for me. I don't do well in... social situations. In fact, this is the first interaction with someone I don't know I've had in a long time." Emerald looked down at the floor with a saddened expression.

"Eh? Why?" Kyouko asked instinctively, but then immediately kicked herself mentally. "Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry into your business. If you don't want to say anything then I-"

"No, it's ok." Emerald said as he re-established eye contact. It's a depressing memory, but I don't mind sharing. I've heard it's even good for oneself to get things like this out in the open." Emerald took a deep breath and began to tell the story.

"When I was younger, both Mizu and I lived in the Human Village. As normal humans, or so we led the villagers to believe. My mother was a human and my father was a tengu, which obviously made me a half-youkai; something not too popular at the time. However..." Emerald stood up, took off his hat and cloak, revealing a pair of insect antennae growing out of his head, and dragonfly-esque insect wings from his upper back. "...as you can see, I have no tengu features to speak off. In fact, the only proof of my father's heritage is my natural ability to manipulate wind." Emerald sat back down. "During an incident before my birth, my mother was attacked and wounded by one of the last of the hostile insect youkai. Her wound went deep and somehow messed with me as I developed; I was born with these insect features as a result of that injury. As I grew up in the village, I always hid my non-human features so people would be unaware. My father died during the incident and my mother raised me by herself until around my sixteenth birthday or so; it's been so long the years run together. I stopped aging visibly two years later. And ten years after that, another incident occurred. I never learned what it was due to my reclusive nature, but one day during, the village was attacked directly. It was nothing major. Just some weak, small time man-eaters. However the village defenders were out at the time, and as such there was nobody to repel the attackers. The village elder at the time, who was one of the only outsiders who knew about the youkai status of Mizu and I, asked us to help. As the only option to keep the village safe, we both accepted and easily chased off the attackers. In doing so, however, we exposed ourselves as youkai to the village at large. For a few months afterwards, the people seemed to accept us, but the natural paranoia of humans led them to eventually whispering accusations of my involvement in the attack, go so far as to even blame the event on me overall. Mizu got off mostly free, due to magicians being much much closer to human than other youkai, and kinda fell off the radar. Eventually though, their accusations became more and more vocal and expressed. It got to the point where they event started insulting my late parents, cursing my mother for giving birth to a "creature" like me, and that was all I could take. I left the village and went out on my own. After a few days, I found the tree that we're in here and kinda claimed it as my own. And although he didn't need to, Mizu also left the village behind after seeing how the people turned on me despite how I had only wanted to help; to co-exist with them. Mizu helped me turn the top of the tree into a livable home, and once I had a basic house here, he left to make his own home elsewhere, although we still met up every few days to just hang out as important friends."

Emerald paused for a moment to look up at the ceiling in remembrance before finishing up. Kyouko stared on, listening intently.

"From then on, things pretty much slowed down. About a full generation passed since then. I build up this house, met a few people and made a few friends out of those people. I collected various texts as you can see in the shelves behind me, and an elixir brewing stand over in the room's corner for experimenting with magical items and ingredients as a hobby. The biggest gain was probably my craftsmanship. I use the natural materials of the Forest of Magic to make my weapons of choice; bows. The magic infused into the materials due to the forest's influence makes them a great focus for one's own abilities."

He finally finished, and glanced at Kyouko, who was still hanging onto each word.

"Ah, sorry. My craftsmanship is one of the few things I take pride in, and it seems I've gone and ranted because of that; it wasn't even relevant to the story at hand."

Kyouko finally spoke. "No, it's fine! It was really interesting! And... I'm glad that you shared all that with me. I mean, I'm sorry I made you re-live it again, but still glad you told me."

"Well, then I'm glad it happened to. It felt nice to get it off my chest some more, and I just feel like I can trust you. Partially because you're working to be a priest, but mostly because I can just feel like you're a trustworthy person. Sorry if that sounds weird or creepy." Emerald replied.

"N-no, I appreciate it, really." Kyouko smiled with a hint of light red on her face.

"Well then. Perhaps I should get you back home? I wouldn't want you to worry the head priest."

"Nah, it's ok. I can make it there eon my own no problem!" Kyouko fist-pumped the air and slapped her other hand onto her first arm's bicep. "Besides, I've already troubled you enough by taking up your time and one of your beds."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't mind at all-"

"Trust me, I'll be ok." Kyouko interrupted. She had an air of complete confidence about her.

As she climbed out of the bottom floor's floor-hatch, she looked up to Emerald with another smile.

"Well then Emerald, have a good night. And thank you again for helping me out and nursing me. I hope I get to see more of you in the future."

With that, Kyouko pushed off the tree's trunk and flew off into the night. Emerald looked on for as long as he could see her in the darkness (which was admittedly a long time, as his mixed blood awarded him with excellent eyesight in all conditions), before turning back away from the window he was at and going into thought.

"Kasodani Kyouko-chan, eh? I actually... also hope we see more of each other in the future. Perhaps I can ask Mizu to help me out in this situation."

_**Chapter End**_

_So this is the result of many years of sleepless nights. When I can't sleep, my mind wanders and I tend to think of fantasy related stuff and what it would be like to be a part of that fantasy. I do personally feel that my fantasy alter ego that I've created with Emerald is pretty balanced, and that the overall story that I'm trying to weave isn't too outlandish for the setting; minus the whole 'males in Gensokyo' thing. He's not trying to be a hero or anything. He's just trying to live his life. I really hope others see it that way too; I really don't think I'm making an OP Gappy Stu type here, but I have no confidence whatsoever in my writing. I have the first three pages written for the next chapter already, but it'll most likely be a good while before I finish it up since I'm lazy and currently unmotivated, but if people actually do enjoy what I've done so far, it'll probably go a long way towards making me get in gear and writing more often. I hope you enjoy my little continuity I'm setting up here, and if you do, I thank you and hope you'll stick with me._


	4. Chapter 2

**_Emerald Acid is a character that belongs to me, and Harusame Mizukishi is my friend's creation that I am using with his consent._**

**_All other characters, as well as the Touhou universe, belong to ZUN._**

_**Chapter 2**_

The next day came, and Emerald had woken up earlier than normal. A lot had been going through his mind as he tried to sleep the night before, and it had kept sleep away from him, only resting for a total of six hours out of his usual ten. Effectively, he was running on only slightly more than half a tank. He'd be alright to operate normally, but if boredom were to set in for any reason, the loss of sleep would catch up and hit him on the spot.

"Nothing I can do about it now." He thought to himself, and went upstairs to his storage floor to get something to eat.

After his breakfast, he went all the way downstairs to the study to sit and plan out his day. Emerald always liked to have a plan to avoid any aimless wandering, although more often than not it was a pointless endeavor to try and plan out a full day that was just a day like any other. This time however, Emerald had a clear goal in mind: he wanted to meet Kyouko again. However, he quickly ran into a problem. He wanted to see her again, but he felt that he had to keep himself distanced from the many humans of the Human Village, since he had been run out of the village before, and on a personal level he had never really let go of that incident of many decades ago. Confronted with figuring out how to achieve his goal while minding the limitation, Emerald did what he always did when mentally conflicted: he closed his eyes and began to unnecessarily over-think things.

An hour passed, and Emerald was still lost in thought, having not moved from his chair since he started thinking. Eventually, he came back out of his mental shell to cool off; his face red from his body temperature literally overheating. He stood up, stretched, and made his way to the stairs, deciding to vent on the balcony that wrapped around the center floor of his house, accessible from a door on his personal bedroom-slash-crafting room level.

"I swear, the steam coming off you is visible."

Emerald spun on his heel towards the front-facing window where the sudden voice had come from.

"And how long have you been there?" Emerald asked with a flat expression.

"A while. I'd say from my perspective, you've been in think-mode for a good forty five minutes." answered Mizukishi. It seems he had dropped by like he often did, and had gone unnoticed due to Emerald's mental isolation time.

"...I don't have to worry about going up to my storage area and finding another ice ball that's going to instantly melt and soak my stuff as soon as I touch it, am I?" Emerald asked cautiously.

"Nah. I never repeat a prank on the same person twice. Besides, you only do your little thought cocoon when seriously thinking of something important. So what's up?" Mizu replied.

Emerald sighed, still worried about what **else** Mizu might have done, but ultimately cast the thought aside.

"Last night, after we parted ways, I ran into an injured girl near the cliff face. Long story short, I took her back to my place to help her recover before it went dark."

"Anyone I know?" Mizu inquired.

"Yes, apparently. She knew you, anyways. Her name was Kasodani Kyouko. Yamabiko, green hair, brown fur on her features. Ring a bell?"  
"Ah, Kassan"

"'Kassan'? She had a nickname for you too."

"Yeah. You know how much I don't care for formality, and neither did she. So what happened with her once you brought her here?"

Emerald recapped the events of the night before to Mizu, about how they talked and how Emerald uncharacteristically opened up to her with the story of the incident back when he still lived in the Human Village.

"And that's pretty much it." Emerald finished. "I was... hoping to see her again and see if we couldn't just talk or something. I feel like I'd like to be friends with her, if possible. But in order to go see her, I'd have to go through the village as well as deal with the other people visiting and working at the Temple. And seeing as humans want me to stay away and want nothing to do with me, that created a conflict of interests, which was the problem I was trying to solve just now to no avail."

There was a small pause of silence, then Mizu spoke up.

"Just go there." Mizu said bluntly.

"What?" Emerald responded. "But the humans-"

"-Don't matter." Mizu, interrupted. "This is something you want to do for yourself, and you have a right to do so. Despite what you think to yourself, you're not bothering anybody just by being there or passing by, so don't care what they'll think. And if they **do** have a problem with you being there, they can stick it up their spell card. I know you want to avoid any more conflict with the humans, but you get to pursue happiness too."

"...Do you really think it'll be that simple? I'd be lying if I said I don't feel incredibly nervous about going through there, regardless of any irrelevant opinions they might have towards me."

"It's not like I expect you to just waltz in there and suddenly rejoin society. I'll be going with you as well, so don't worry about anything. And just some extra food for thought: anyone in the village old enough to remember the incident in the first place is either dead of old age, or close to it and probably senile. The exceptions to the rule being the Hieda family and the village elder, through the records that the former always keep. We'll be visiting them as a pit stop, by the way. They were always on our side, even back then, and it'll be good for you to get reacquainted with them, as well as have them seeing that you're doing well after all this time."

"Well, I suppose if it's both of us, I'll be able to tolerate it. When should we plan to go?"  
"Screw planning, we're going today; as soon as you stop looking sunburnt."

"Oh. I guess I should get on that."

With that, Emerald left for the balcony to cool off in the breeze, and now with the additional task of mentally preparing himself for something he had been avoiding for so long. Far too long, most likely. He was going back to the Human Village.

After returning to relatively normal operating status, Emerald grabbed his hat and cloak from his bedroom before heading back downstairs to set out with Mizu. Mizu gave a small sigh as he saw Emerald's concealing accessories, but he supposed it was fine as a coping method. Emerald was going out in the first place, which was a good enough start. They descended through the bottom floor's trapdoors and into the outside world, closing the house up behind them and setting off towards the village. As they flew, they made light banter as they usually did.

"Random question. I've been dropping in for years and even helped build the place, but I've never asked or known. How do you keep the fairies and random wandering youkai from trying to raid your glaringly obvious tree house?" Mizu asked.

"I don't actually have a specific method of keeping them out, truthfully." Emerald replied.

"As you're aware, the mid-level doors that lead to my bedroom can only be opened from the outside by recognized magical signatures, and the trapdoors are generally camouflaged when looking at them from below; they're easy to spot and use if the person knows they're there, but the unaware generally just don't give it a second look. The only thing you might not know right off is that the overall structure is strengthened by a generic reinforcement spell, so the average riff-raff can't break their way in should they try. What about your place?"

"I live near Misty Lake, remember? All the small fry fairies get dealt with by that Ice Fairy, Cirno. She acts like the boss of the area, so I only have to deal with her, which isn't a big deal. She can't freeze my fists!"

"Well technically she can. It just wouldn't do her any good since then she'd just get hit by a chunk of ice instead."

"Quit nitpicking. There's a cute mermaid that lives in the lake too. She's friendly; maybe I'll introduce ya to her if current things don't work out well." Mizu had a smug look on his face as he said that.

"Eheheheheheh." Emerald laughed back sarcastically with a flat expression of unamusement.

"Let's just see how this plays out, no?"

"Sure. We're coming up on the village about now anyways. Like I said before we left, we're stopping off to see the elder and the Hieda family first. They'd appreciate seeing that you still exist, given that they supported you back when you lived here."

"Yeah, I remember. I assume we can't just fly in and land next to their houses?"  
"It's not against any rules or anything, but I'm sure you'd rather call as little attention to us as possible."

"Good point. Guess we're walking. There's our LZ, so let's get this over with."

With that, Emerald took a deep breath and began to descend towards the open field that led into the village, making sure to stay behind Mizu instead of leading the way himself.

As they both made their way through the village, Emerald kept his gaze slightly downward as he usually did, and angled his hat to keep his eyes from meeting those of another. He knew the layout of the village from memory still despite the long time gap, although there obviously were a few new buildings here and there. Averted gaze aside, he still couldn't help but rubberneck out of curiosity. To his relief, nobody was paying him any attention; at least no more than the passing glance that most people gave each other when crossing paths. He also didn't recognize anybody, which was another relief to his worries since nobody he saw could or would know of the past incident he was involved in.

"See? Nothing to worry about." Mizu said, seeing Emerald look around anxiously.

The sudden comment from Mizu made Emerald jump a bit, since he wasn't really paying attention to Mizu until then, and wasn't expecting him to speak up like that.

"Relax, dude." Mizu followed up with, as he also saw Emerald jump.

"I can't really help it; I don't want to be so... nervous, but it's kind of a natural reaction right now."

"Well, don't crumple on me now. We're almost there." Mizu said; his tone coming across as his own odd brand of being comforting. Condescending comfort, they had named it, although it wasn't entirely accurate since there wasn't any real malice in the words.

As Mizu said, they were indeed near their first destination; the elder's home. However, as they ducked in to see him, they were redirected as the elder wasn't in. However, in a stroke of luck, he had left for the archives for some reason or another, which means both of their targets were in the same location now. And so, they made their way to the archives of the Hieda family.

As the duo approached the archive building, Emerald spoke up with a concern.

"So uh... what am I supposed to talk about here? You know I'm not good with dialogue with people I don't know."

"You talked to Kassan just fine." Mizu pointed out.

"She was... different. That's kinda the primary reason I feel interested in her. I can't really explain it, but it's just... enjoyable and calming to be around her."

"Well just do what you always do with new people. You don't have to actively start conversation topics; just answer the questions that get asked. And seeing as Akyuu-san is gonna wanna grill you for information for her archives, I think that'll work just fine."

"Ah, right. She's the current Child of Miare, right? There wasn't one around during the incident proper, what with that whole 90-ish year gap in their lifespans."

And with that, they arrived at their new destination. Mizu led the way as they entered, with Emerald lagging behind. They made their way to the large, library-esque room that was the archive, and Emerald couldn't help but look around the area.

"There's a pretty big book collection here, no?" Emerald asked no one in particular. However, he got an answer anyways.

"Yes, it is. It is not the largest collection of literature in Gensokyo, however." said a voice from behind a bookcase. Emerald turned in the direction the voice spoke from just as the voice's origin came into view. Standing before him was the 9th Child of Miare herself, Hieda no Akyuu.

"That would be the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Voile, would it not?" Emerald responded, doing his best to not show how uneasy he was feeling talking to someone he didn't know.

"I have an acquaintance who frequents the place, and she's mentioned that it's the biggest collection she's ever seen. And she gets around a lot."

"Miss Kirisame, I'd assume? She does have quite the reputation. She is correct, however."

"Yo, Akyuu-san. How's it been?" Mizu spoke up.

"Good greetings to you, Mizukishi-san. And this must be your friend you've spoken much about." Akyuu responded.

"Emerald. Pleased to meet you." Emerald introduced. I've known of you for awhile, but since I wasn't present during the Miracle of Miare festival, I suppose this is the first time that I've seen you in person."

"Good greetings to you as well, Emerald-san." Akyuu said as she looked from Emerald to Mizu and back again.

"Your friend is known to come by the archives from time to time, but as this is the first time he has brought you here, I assume you both have come with a purpose?" She deducted.

"Right you are." Mizu confirmed. "We came by to visit while on the way to the Myouren Temple. I finally got this guy to come back into general society, so I thought it'd be a good idea to have him get reacquainted with both the village elder and the Hieda family. He hasn't been in the village since a few years after the last time the village was attacked proper; during some incident involving the Hakurei's previous maiden that left the village undefended."

"I do recall reading of such an incident. I certainly would not mind hearing a first hand recollection of the event in person, however. I have no inherited memories of it since there was no Child of Miare alive at the time. Might I trouble you to recall it for me?"

"We'd be glad to. Is the old man around as well? We were told he was here, and having him here with us as well will also accomplish our goal. Right?" Mizu prodded Emerald.

"...I don't mind." Emerald responded.

"Splendid. The elder is just reading some old articles in another room. If you'd both accompany me, the four of us can convene in the reading room that he is currently in."

With that, Akyuu led Mizu and Emerald to where the elder was, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to add Emerald's information about the incident to her knowledge pool.

Upon reaching the elder's reading room of choice, Mizu greeted the elder, he also introduced him to Emerald. Akyuu informed the elder of the business that the two had come to discuss in the first place. Once all four of them were ready, Emerald recounted the events of the incident from so many years ago, as had done for Kyouko the previous night. Mizu occasionally chimed in with colorful commentary and other various bits of information, but he mostly kept silent. Eventually, the story came to a close, and both Emerald and Mizu set off to leave, having completed their first objective for the day. Akyuu saw them to the entrance, and spoke up as they were leaving.

"Thank you both for coming here today, and many thanks for the first hand knowledge of one of Gensokyo's many incidents. It shall be recorded and archived forever more." She said with a smile. "Good tidings to you both in your future endeavors."

Mizu and Emerald both waved as they left the Hieda archives and made their way towards the village entrance. As they made it back to the open field where they first landed, they were finally ready to start flying again, and took off towards their next destination: the Myouren Temple.

"See? That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Mizu said as they flew.

"Definitely not as bad as I had feared, although I don't think I'll be going back there quite often, or any time in the near future." Emerald replied. While it was true that it wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought it would be, Emerald had still felt uncomfortable being around so many people at once. Even if they were just passing by and paying him no mind.

"Well, suck it up anyways because there'll still be a handful of people at the temple. Both staff and random visitors. C'mon, your girlfriend is waitin' for ya." Mizu teased.

"Wait what? She's not my-" Emerald tried to reply but Mizu suddenly accelerated and took off before he could finish.

"...-girlfriend." he finished to himself. With an annoyed look on his face that he usually saved for Mizu's love of bad puns, he also sped up to match his friend. He'd get even before the day was over, for sure. But for now their second, and major, objective was on the table. They were off to the Myouren Temple.

"Maybe I'll kick him in the shins, or something similar..." he mused to himself.

_**Chapter End**_

_So yeah. I actually made an update thing. Since this was already three pages in when I published the first chapter, I eventually felt motivated enough to finish this up, and now it's finally published as well. I have the general idea of what I wanna do for chapter three, but it's probably gonna be awhile before I get to that, because I'm lazy as hell and motivation is hard to come by. I do hope this entry was as good/appreciated as much as the last chapter, and if anyone out there is enjoying all this, I thank you; it's greatly appreciated._


End file.
